Communication has always been important to society. Throughout the past several decades, various methods of communicating have emerged such as telegraphy, telephony, and, more recently, the internet. In particular, the internet has been a catalyst for online communications such as email, instant textual messaging and instant video/audio conversations. The online communication technologies have also expanded onto smartphones and other mobile devices capable of handling data communication via the internet and/or a telephone service provider. For example, an individual may be using his/her smartphone to send an email, via an email application such as Microsoft Outlook®, to his/her coworker regarding a work topic. In addition, that same smartphone may be used to send a textual message via an instant messaging program like Skype®. If the instant messaging program is also capable of supporting audio and video, the instant messaging system may also be used engage in an audio and/or video conversations.
A known instant messaging program is utilized to facilitate a real-time communication need. For example, when navigating a shoe store website (e.g., web application), there may be functionality that allows a user to engage a shoe store employee via the instant messaging program to discuss information about a given shoe. However, some known web applications have minimal, if any, communication between users. For example, in a known matter management system, a main purpose is to manage a set of legal matter records. Within the known matter management system, a user places a note within the matter record so that other participants within the record can see and/or be notified of the note. However, known matter management systems do not provide messaging programs capable of real-time communications about a matter. Furthermore, there may be more than one application that is related, for example, to the matter. For instance, if a matter record resides within a matter management system, it is likely that there are also emails discussing the matter. Thus, the email application also has a relationship with the matter. However, known approaches do not allow a messaging program to be established within multiple applications.
Accordingly, the present inventors identified a need for using a messaging program associated with a set of permissions across multiple applications.